Welcome to Survival of the Fittest, a RPing board loosely based off of Koshun Takami's Battle Royale, with its own unique plot and spin on the 'deadly game'. We've been around quite a while, and are now in our thirteenth year, so don't worry about us going anywhere any time soon!

If you're a newcomer and interested in joining, then please make sure you check out the rules. You may also want to read the FAQ, introduce yourself and stop by the chat to meet some of our members. If you're still not quite sure where to start, then we have a great New Member's Guide with a lot of useful information about getting going. Don't hesitate to PM a member of staff (they have purple usernames) if you have any questions about SOTF and how to get started!

"Stupid island. Stupid, stupid island," Alex muttered. Back at school she'd always had someone to talk to, to keep her company. Here it seemed like everybody had abandoned her. Maybe they were all playing some sick hide and go seek and she was permanently "it". She didn't like being alone. She hadn't had much experience with it before, and now she knew. It sucked. It gave her way to much time to think. Alex much preferred action, doing something to solve a problem. Even if the action was wrong at least she was moving forward. Being stuck in limbo was definitely not her thing.

And now she found herself walking once more. "Yet another reason why this island is stupid," she said. It seemed like all she'd done was walk or run from one end of the island to another. When she'd managed to stop she'd found Roman and lost him.

As the wooden terrain leveled out into flat plain she saw a group of houses huddled together. "Why not," she asked no one in particular.

She couldn't help but whistling the theme to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, as she walked down the abandoned street. Maybe there'd be a bed, some place she could crash for a while.

Alex stopped whistling, which was just as well as she’d almost reached the end of the song, and turned to face the voice that had called out. It took her a moment to find the boy that was standing on the porch of one of the houses.

“I don’t know. Does it count as being lost, if you had no particular destination in mind to begin with,” she called back. She waved and changed directions heading towards the house. “It’s Ray, isn’t it? I’m Alex. Like I said I’m not really looking for any place in particular. I started out looking for my brother Roman and I found him only to lose him again.”

She paused and offered him a smile. “That sounded a little Alice in Wonderland or something didn’t it? Sorry, I’m rambling,” she said pausing to take a breath. “I’ve been on my own for a little over a day now and the one thing I’ve discovered is that I really don’t like it. Do you mind if I come in and hang out for a while?”

Alex broke into a wide smile as she saw Annaliese appear. Just when Alex was sure she didn’t have a friend left on the island, one appeared. Alex laughed as she corrected her movie reference, but before she could formulate a response she’d rushed on. Alex nodded her thanks at her sympathy for Roman.

"Chilling's fine with us. Was just about to turn on the gas grill. I can burn a mean slab of ribs." He smiled, pushed himself off the doorframe to allow a gap."You bring some potato salad, maybe a bag of chips or a 2-Liter of Faygo? This here's a potluck."

"Nice to meet you, Alex," she said somewhat uncertainly, though keeping a smile on her face. "I'm Isabel. And really, Ray's ribs are to die for..."

The sudden shift in conversation and demeanor took Alex by surprise and it took her a second to catch up. She didn’t know the other two people nearly as well as she did Annaliese. There was a small part of her brain was warning her that now was not the time to meet and trust in new people. She couldn’t seem to ignore this new camaraderie that had developed. It was so nice to be around people that were acting normal. For the time being, came the warning from the little voice again. ‘Shut up Roman,’ she silently ordered the voice. She decided that new cautious part of her brain must be her brother and was glad he was still with her.

“A potluck, well then I got here just in time. I’m sure I’ve got some macaroni salad in here at the least,” she said playing along. “Hiya, Isabel, pleased to meet you.”

Alex gratefully stepped through the gap Ray had provided and walked into the house. She took a moment to take in her surroundings. She set her pack on the floor and turned to face them. “Well, what do we do next?”

Alex rolled her eyes and dropped down on the couch next to Isabel. “Raisins are awesome, you so don’t know what you’re missing,” she couldn’t resist teasing Annaliese back. “Speaking of fruit that sounds wonderful. Any chance of a fruit salad at our potluck? What I wouldn’t give for some kind of fruit. You don’t suppose that the grocery store has any? Even the dried kind?”

“Bedroom would be my guess as well,” she said turning her attention to Ray. “I doubt any of my shirts would fit you, but you’re welcome to try.” She looked from Annaliese to Ray and then back. “Umm, if the plan is that we’re going to go check out the grocery store why are you building a barricade?

"I already got it out of Isabel here. Tell us 'bout what you been doing before you got here. We can ki....we can burn a little time." He headed in, leaving the door open so he could hear.

Alex shook her head at Isabel’s comment and looked between her and Annaliese. Between Isabel’s tendency to talk as if no one could hear her and Annaliese’s apparent obsession with zombies, she was beginning to have her doubts about this group. But Ray, Ray seemed to be dealing okay and keeping the girls together. And Alex really didn’t want to strike out on her own again.

“Not a whole lot. I spent most of the first three or four days looking for my brother. I found Jess pretty early on and we’ve been together most of the time. But after Roman was killed, we kinda drifted apart. Not that I blame her it’s not like I’m the best company.

I just got him back, found him, after four days and then Acacia…well I don’t know what she was thinking but she took him from me,” Alex stopped talking, shifted in her seat, and then forced a laugh.

“See what I mean haven’t exactly been the best company lately. Anyway then I ran into Hayley who’s gone completely nuts, just FYI. She started shooting at us and killed Jason. After that I’ve just kinda been wandering the island. Not sure what I’m supposed to do with me now,” she finished up quickly.

Alex flashed Ray a grateful smile and was more than happy to accept the offer. However, she had trouble believing what came out of Isabel’s mouth. She was actually looking for Hayley! Had she just missed the part about the random shooting? On second thought maybe she should give her the information, and then she could experience Hayley psychosis first hand. Before she could make any kind of comment things suddenly got serious. While she didn’t believe there were actual zombies outside someone was coming.

She got up to see who it was that Annaliese had seen out the windows, but Isabel beat her to it. Alex made a face, like most of the senior class she had had little time for Jimmy Brennan. She was more surprised to find Rosa in his company. Alex stepped close enough to hear Jimmy’s threat and to see the shotgun he held.

“Ummm, I vote for doing what he says. It’s not like we’re super attached to this house, and I’d like to avoid getting shot at again. If we still want to hang out around here, there’s not exactly a shortage of houses we can invade.”

“Is that Rosa? Wow talk about a downward spiral,” Alex said softly from behind Ray. She looked around hoping that no one had actually heard her and stepped back into the house. She wasn’t actually trying to antagonize anyone, not when they had guns and were covered in blood.

“Guess we better get our stuff together,” she announced to no one in particular. “I guess Little Lord Crazy Pants can’t figure out this is a residential area and wants our house. Apparently he’s decided to play the Napoleon of the island and conquer all he sees. Although come to think of it, Napoleon didn’t have the greatest track records with islands.”

Alex stopped talking abruptly realizing she was rambling. Instead, she busied herself with gathering her duffle bag from the floor. So much for the shower she’d been debating about taking.

Alex’s head shot up as the yelling started and she made it over to the door in time to see Ray tackle Jimmy. Part of her was glad to see Ray take on the bully like that, and she wanted to cheer him on. Right up until he continued to scream at the boy who looked to be unconscious. She took a step back and heard Isabel mutter something and then get sick. She glanced briefly over at her, made a face, and then glanced back outside trying to make sense of everything.

In between Ray, Jimmy, and Annaliese’s exchange she thought she’d heard more people arrive on the scene. She shook her head what must they be thinking? She shouldered her bag and stood in the middle of the room, suddenly annoyed at the whole situation.

“Well, now that we're doing hosing the area with testosterone could we get the hell out of here? You know before someone else decides to jump in and prove their manhood."